True Colours
by DeNerd
Summary: After Bowser covers most of the Mushroom Kingdom in eith red or blue paint all of it's inhabitents start fighting each other. Based on one of the cartoon episodes and contains a lot of Toad.


True Colours

** **

I got the idea for this from the cartoon episode called True Colours. The start is more or less the same but the ending is completely different. Also I will call the Koopa Kids by the names they have in the games, not by the ones they have in the cartoon.

I have also included Yoshi in this story, even though he wasn't in this series of cartoons.

Morton, Lemmy and Ludwig Koopa were desperately trying to wake up their father.

"C'mon Dad! You've got an invasion to start! Shouted Lemmy whilst before accidentally pulling a handful of his father's hair out.

"I need my beauty sleep." The King of Koopas mumbled before turning over in his sleep.

"It's no use." Sighed Ludwig, "Lets just let the army out ourselves. I know how to open the doom ship doors."

Two minutes later the three of them were stood at different control panels.

"When I count to three pull the levers! Ready? 1…2…3!

They all pulled on the levers. Instantly a huge set of doors opened on the other side of the ship. Hundreds of Para-koopas and Para-goombas flew out of the ship toward the ground. They all ran towards the observation window and, after a brief scuffle deciding who would stand in the best place, they watched what was going on.

Their faces fell once they saw that Mario, Luigi and Yoshi were having no problems whatsoever defeating the huge army, mainly because Toad and Peach were helping by shooting missiles into the air. But their disappointment turned to fear when they thought about what their father would say once he realised that they had sent hundreds of his best fighters to their doom.

Suddenly King Koopa stormed into the room. "What have you lot done!" He shouted, "You should have let me send the troops out!" He roared.

"But Dad." Morton began, "We couldn't wake you up."

"And the result would have been the same anyway." Lemmy added, "It's not our fault that they were shooting missiles, they're just to good as a team for us to stop them!"

"That's it!" Shouted Ludwig suddenly, "That's why we keep losing! All we have to do is make them start fighting each other!"

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Asked Bowser. "You already said that they are too co-operative for us."

Ludwig thought about this for a while. Then he smiled. "I think I have an idea."

On the surface of the Mushroom Kingdom the five friends were celebrating.

"Another attack of Bowser's stopped!" Said Luigi.

"That makes this the 92nd time in a row that we've beat Bowser." Pointed out Toad.

"You've counted them? You need to get a life!" Joked Mario.

Peach looked up at the sky suddenly, "It might be 93 in a moment, Bowser's attacking again!" 

They all looked up. They saw several things falling towards them at high speed. "Mamma Mia! He's using missiles!" Shouted Luigi.

"Toad! Get everyone to go inside, quickly!" Ordered Peach. 

The little mushroom retainer scurried off quickly and started to run around telling his kin to go somewhere safe. The other four stood outside waiting to see what would happen when the things hit the floor. Suddenly there was a shout from behind them.

"It's just paint!" Shouted a young mushroom lad who was now dyed red. "Bowser's thinks he can defeat us by covering us in paint."

Most of the other mushroom stopped running for cover and starting laughing. But Toad was still worried.

"Get inside! Bowser must have some reason to do this, otherwise he wouldn't!" He shouted.

"Oh Toad!" Laughed Peach, who had now been covered with the red paint, "Mario's right, you do need to lighten up!"

"Hey baby! You know I'm-a always right!" Said Mario, who was now blue. 

"Hey Mario! You reckon that now I'm red I'll get some of your adventures?" Shouted a red Luigi.

"It's not your colour Luigi." Shouted a blue Yoshi, "My red cousin never went on an adventure in his life!"

The carried on joking and laughing at Toad, who was trying to dodge every bit of paint. Toad merely looked at them worriedly before scurrying off inside his own house. Everyone else just laughed at him. And at themselves when they saw how funny they looked in different colours.

Toad looked out of the window of his house scowling. Partly because he was annoyed that everyone was being so careless and partly because he felt that he had made a complete prat of himself by worrying.

"Well… I'll either be right, or I'll be able to tell Mario how stupid he looks with a blue moustache!" He thought. "I hope I'm not right though. But why would Bowser do anything if it were pointless. That paint could be poisoned for all we know! I wish I knew what he was up to."

Up on the doom ship Ludwig was looking down on the events with a very pleased look on his face.

"I knew it! They all fell for the trap because they thought it was pointless!"

"Toad didn't!" Snapped Bowser.

"He is insignificant! Now we can continue with the next part of our plan."

"What is the next part of your plan then, geek?" Snapped Roy who, along with the rest of the kids, had been called into the control deck.

"First I need two of you to dress up as mushroom kingdom folk." He said. They all started making up excuses why they couldn't do it.

"Iggy, Lemmy! You two will be the mushrooms." Bowser snapped. "And you'll do whatever your brother asks."

Iggy and Lemmy looked very annoyed as they mumbled "Yes Dad."

"Right, Iggy can be a red mushroom and Lemmy can be a blue mushroom. Iggy I want you to cause trouble for some of the blue mushrooms. And Lemmy I want you to cause trouble for the red mushrooms." Iggy and Lemmy brightened up considerably, "But then when one of you has caused trouble, the other must say that the other coloured mushrooms are always causing trouble."

"And then?" They asked.

"That's all you'll have to do at first. Afterwards just keep in your disguises and make sure that they all hate each other."

"I don't think this is going to work!" Bowser commented.

"Trust me Dad. Have any of my plans ever failed?"

"Yes, lots of them, and it's always Toad's fault!"

"But this time he won't matter because he'll just be ignored. Trust me."

Toad woke up the next morning and had a brief second of peacefulness before he heard obscenities being shouted by lots of people. He got up and changed as quickly as possible before dashing outside.

What he saw appalled him. Almost every mushroom must have been there and they were split into two groups, the reds and the blues. And they were all arguing violently. 

"What happened here?" Toad asked a group of mushrooms that had avoided the paint attack and were now stood huddled in a group, too scared to know what to do.

"The blue mushrooms have been causing trouble for the red mushrooms, and vice versa." A young woman told him. "Then they started arguing and it turned into this."

"You'll stop it right?" Asked a young man hopefully, "It's just my sister's a red and my girlfriend's a blue and I don't know who to choose if they end up hating each other."

"Don't worry, I'll stop it." Toad said, "But I'll need some help, Mario must know about this, mustn't he?" Toad looked around for the other four heroes and was amazed when he found them.

They were right in the middle of the argument, Mario and Yoshi were shouting at Peach and Luigi and the two brothers already looked as if they had been attacking each other.

"I'm sick of being your girlfriend and having to cook all your dinners and then having to watch your disgusting table manners every night!" Peach was shouting at Mario.

"Well that's fine! Because I'm so sick of your whining and moaning and telling to eat healthily all the time that I'm dumping you."

"You're horrible Mario! You don't respect Peach at all." Luigi snapped, "You should get a proper man Peach."

"Like you I suppose!" Snapped Yoshi, "Some brother, and friend for that matter, you are. As soon as Mario splits up with Peach you start chatting her up!"

"I was not chatting…" Luigi started, but Toad had heard enough.

"SHUT UP!!!!" He yelled at the top of his voice. The four of them were silent.

"Look at you lot! You're supposed to be heroes; you're supposed to give an example to others. And here you are right in the middle of this fight ready to murder each other. This is exactly what Bowser wants! If we start fighting each other, then there'll be no one to fight him. We've got to stop this stupid argument before it gets serious." He said.

"Why should we listen to you?" They all said at the same time, "You're with them." They then carried on with their argument.

Toad stood still for a minute, too shocked and appalled to move. Then Mario realised he was still there. "Eavesdropping on our argument hey! I bet you're going to write an anti-blue report for that stupid newspaper of yours." He snapped. Toad tried to explain that he was only trying to stop them arguing but Mario kicked him in the stomach. He fell to the ground, struggling to breath, and then something hit him on the head and everything went black.

Hours later the fight stopped. But half of the mushroom kingdom was now answering to Mario instead of Peach. As they two groups separated and left the small group of non-coloured mushrooms who didn't have a clue where to go. Then suddenly one of the children saw a small form on the floor.

It was Toad, the young woman who spoke to him before shook him a little. "Wake up sir." She said uncertainly.

Toad opened him eyes a little "Stop fighting, we've got to stop… fight." He muttered before closing his eyes again.

"We've got to get him back to his house." One of the others said.

In a few moments Toad was lying on his bed with a crowd of concerned mushrooms standing around him. He opened his eyes again.

"What happened?" He muttered.

"You were knocked out, but you're safe now, don't worry." The young woman said gently.

Toad sat up suddenly. "I've got to stop the others fighting!" He shouted and started to get up.

"They've already stopped. But half the kingdom is answering to Mario." The man who spoke to him before said.

"Then that means they're still fighting." Toad muttered, "I'm going to try to talk to them separately, you guys can stay here if you want." He said as he started to leave.

"But if you go talk to them now they'll just say you're with the others and attack you again!" Someone pointed out.

"Damn! Wait, I think I've got an idea."

A few minutes later Toad was stood wearing a yellow vest and a white hat with yellow spots.

"Now I'm not on anybody's side." He said.

A few minutes later Toad found Peach and Luigi at the castle.

"Hey Toad! What's with the new gear?" Luigi asked when he saw him.

"It's so nobody thinks I'm taking sides." Toad told him.

"We're sorry we helped hit you," Peach said, "We were all a little mad with each other then."

"So you've made up with Mario?" Toad asked hopefully.

"No way! Not after what he said to us. Anyway, he's a blue." Luigi said.

"He's your brother Luigi, no matter what colour he is!"

"That's not true. You were right when you said that paint was dangerous. The blue stuff screws up your mind!" Luigi snapped.

"Whose says the red stuff doesn't? You guys are acting differently!" Toad pointed out.

"No we're not!" Peach snapped, "We were just upset with Mario and Yoshi!" 

"And anyway, we're at war with them!" Luigi told him.

"WHAT! War? The lot of you have gone crazy! They're our friends!" Toad shouted.

"Yes Toad, War! We're attacking them at dawn tomorrow. You can help if you want, but we understand if you're too scared."

Toad scowled, but just muttered, "I'll think about it." Before leaving.

Later Toad found Mario and Yoshi round at Yoshi's house.

"Hey Toad! Nice hat, but I preferred your old vest." Mario told him.

"I heard you're at war with Peach and Luigi." Toad said.

"Yes, we're planning to ambush them at dawn tomorrow." Yoshi told him.

"How can you? They're our friends! Especially you Mario, Luigi's your brother and Peach is your girlfriend!"

"It doesn't matter. That red paint has messed up there minds!" Mario snapped.

Toad sighed but didn't tell them that Luigi had said the same thing. "Is there anyway I can stop you from doing this?" He asked, desperately."

"No. The rest of the blues and the Yoshi's will attack them at dawn. That's final, you can help if you think you're able." Yoshi told him, curtly.

"The only way I can help is to stop you fighting each other. And I'm not going to be able to do that on my own." Toad said sadly before leaving.

On the way back to his house Toad was thinking about what he could do.

"They think the paint is what's making them hate each other." He thought, "So If I found a way to get the paint to go they would trust each other again, but how? I don't think it washes off; Ludwig probably made it… And Ludwig always makes an antidote in case he affects himself! That's it!" He thought, and then he ran the rest of the way home.

When he got home he was quite surprised to find that the colourless mushrooms were still there.

"You've all stayed?" He asked.

"We tried to go back, but most of our families don't want us to because we're not like them!" One of them told him.

"Don't worry, I'm going to Koopa castle to see if Ludwig's made a antidote to this paint." Toad told them, this statement didn't cause them to be as relieved as he thought.

"You can't go!" One of them shouted, "If you get kidnapped there'll be no-one to help us stop this! They're actually talking about waging war on each other!"

"I know, but this is the only way I can stop them, they won't listen to me!" Toad said. "If I'm not back by tomorrow get the brothers to help me." He said, and then he left before they could say anything.

An hour later Toad was sneaking around in Koopa castle, he had managed to get past the guards quite easily and was now looking for Ludwig's lab. 

He found it without trouble and started scurrying around looking for a paint antidote.

"Paint antidote, paint antidote! Come on there must be a paint antidote!" He muttered to himself.

"There is!" Said Ludwig standing in the doorway. "It's in my pocket! Did you honestly think I'd make the mistake of leaving it lying around like I have before?"

"You're stupid enough to! Toad snapped. "And your stupid guards let me get this far!"

"That's because I told them to!" Bowser said from behind Ludwig. "I wanted to disappoint you by letting you think you could actually do this! Guards! Send him to the dungeons!"

Two guards stepped out from secret panels in the walls and grabbed Toad. Minutes later he was throw in a cell. He heard Ludwig say, "See Dad. I told you Toad wouldn't stop us this time!" And then the door was shut and there was silence. 

It was dawn in the mushroom kingdom. Peach was stood upon a podium making a speech to the red mushrooms.

"I know that some of those may have been your friends, or maybe even your family, but not anymore. Bowser is controlling them! Do not feel guilty about killing of hurting them. They will be better off dead than in the state they are in now. If you do kill someone, be glad for their spirit as they will then be free from Bowser forever!" She shouted, all of the mushrooms gathered cheered. Then Luigi walked up to the podium.

"Remember this is an ambush, the plan is to run at them quickly and surprise them. Anyone I see lagging behind will be punished! Now go!" He shouted. The troops started to run straight away towards the direction of Yoshi's house.

Meanwhile at Yoshi's house Mario was stood on the roof in front of thousands of gathered mushrooms, some of who were riding Yoshis.

"You all know the plan! Do not take any prisoners! Now go!" He shouted. They all started to run towards Peach's castle.

The colourless mushrooms looked sadly out of the windows of Toad's house. They saw the two groups of mushrooms charging towards each other. Just as the groups were about to hit most of them closed their eyes. Then they heard one of the children laughing, and looked to see what was happening.

The two armies had stopped. They were both shouting and telling the others that they were supposed to be caught surprised and be running away. Meanwhile the leaders of both armies were shouting at their troops to get on with it, but they were having no luck getting their voices heard above the din. After a while both armies were ordered to retreat. And so ended the ambushes.

"The colourless mushrooms looked at each other, relived. Then one of them spoke up.

"Toad hasn't come back yet. We'd best tell the brothers what happened." 

"Good idea, but which one do we tell?" 

"We'll tell both, that way we have twice as much chance of them being able to help Toad."

Toad was sat in his cell, he hadn't heard anything for hours and he was getting rather depressed.

"Why didn't I listen to them and stay at home? I'm a peacekeeper, not an adventurer. Now I've messed up everything!" He said to himself. 

Suddenly he heard two thumps, and then two groans and two more thumps. Then suddenly a face appeared at the window in the door.

"It's-a me! Mario!" Mario said quietly.

"Mario! Are you a sight for sore eyes! I didn't think anyone was coming to help!"

"Hey of course I helped! I just got delayed by the battle." Yoshi told him.

"You went through with that?" 

"Yes. It was a total disaster, though. They knew we were ambushing them. Our army met theirs and we were both so surprised we just retreated!" Mario said.

Toad breathed again. "I'm so glad that happened. Listen Mario, Ludwig's got the antidote for the paint in his pocket, If we get it we can stop all of this from happening!" He told him.

"Great! But I need to know where the key for your cell is!" Mario told him.

"I've got it!" Said a voice from behind him, It was Luigi.

"Luigi! Thank goodness. Now I can get out of here!" Toad shouted.

"What are you doing here?" Mario shouted.

"We're helping our friend! And there's no need to shout at us. We don't spy on people" Peach said.

"We don't! You spied on us!" Mario snapped.

"No! _You spied on __us. I just want to know how. We didn't let anyone except the red know about our plan, except for…" Luigi muttered, looking at Toad. _

Mario was thinking the same thing as Luigi. "You spied on us!" They both shouted at Toad.

"Don't be stupid! Why would I spy on both of you?" Toad shouted.

"You wanted us to kill each other so you could rule the mushroom kingdom!" Mario shouted.

"I hope you rot in that prison, or that Bowser thinks of some really horrible way to torture you! At least we wanted to fight an honest war!" Luigi shouted.

"Ambushing each other is honest?" Toad snapped but his comment went unheeded.

"And we thought you were our friend!" Yoshi snapped, disgusted.

"After all these years, you turn out to be a filthy traitor!" Peach said coldly.

Toad didn't say anything. He just looked at his feet sadly. The others began to leave. Then suddenly Toad piped up.

"Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate. Violence only increases hate. Returning violence with violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." He said.

"Did you make that up yourself?" Yoshi asked.

"No. It's part of a speech by Martin Luther King." Toad told him.

"You memorise speeches?" Luigi started.

"You need to get a life!" They all finished.

"What life. I'm going to be stuck in here for the rest of my life." Toad said sadly. "If that's the only reaction I'm going to get from you lot then Ludwig's probably right! I can't do anything to stop him this time." He finished, his voice had gone very quiet and a single tear rolled down his cheek.

The others looked at each other, and then Mario said. "We've been acting like a load of idiots haven't we?"

"Your right." Peach said.

"Hey baby! You know I'm-a always right!" Yoshi shouted, mimicking Mario. All five of them laughed as Luigi opened the door to Toad's cell.

"Now let's go get that antidote off of Ludwig!" Toad shouted.

"Why? We don't care what colour we are!" Mario said.

"Well, maybe you don't. But you look ridiculous with that blue moustache!" Toad said. 

"And I prefer being green." Yoshi said. "My cousins can't tell who I am!"

In Bowser's throne room they were having a celebration. Ludwig was sat on Bowser's throne and his siblings were all sing "For he's a jolly good fellow."

"You've done well my boy! Your even craftier than your old man!"

"I told you Toad couldn't mess my plan up this time!" Ludwig said.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that!" Toad shouted, as he burst through the door followed by Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi.

"Now hand over that antidote!" Mario shouted.

"No way!" Ludwig replied.

The brothers ran over to Ludwig and tried to jump on his head. He dodged them, then he snatched a plunger from Luigi and threw it towards Yoshi, who was starting to open his mouth so he could try to swallow the antidote. The plunger stuck on Yoshi's mouth and stopped him from opening it. Peach ran over to help him but Roy and Morton Koopa stopped her, suddenly Ludwig brought out the antidote.

"I don't actually need this!" He said and threw it high into the air. 

Luigi ran out to catch it but Wendy Koopa tripped him up. They watched it tumble down to the floor, about to smash an inch out of Luigi's reach. Then suddenly Toad took of his hat and skimmed it along the floor to Luigi, who held it under the bottle as it fell to the ground. It remained unharmed.

"Thanks Ludwig!" Luigi shouted. And then they all ran out of Koopa castle, leaving Bowser to shout at his son.

Back in the mushroom kingdom they diluted the antidote and made all of the mushrooms wash in it. Soon they were all back to normal, and everybody decided to celebrate another one of "The brothers heroic adventures."

Everybody was surrounding Mario and Luigi, when Luigi suddenly saw Toad walking into his house. 

"Hey, Mario. I think Toad's upset. Maybe we should tell them the truth." He said.

"You're right, it's him who deserves the credit."

When Toad walked out of his house again he got the shock of his life! Nearly every mushroom in the kingdom started cheering him. He smiled and let himself be lead up to the place where Mario and Luigi usually sat.

"Hey, were sorry if we made it seem like we were going to ignore you just then." Mario said.

"After all, if it hadn't been for you, we'd have probably killed everyone by now." Peach said.

"We didn't mean to upset you just now." Yoshi said.

"Upset me? Why did you think I was upset? Toad said puzzled.

"We saw you going into your house. Weren't you annoyed that we were getting the credit?" Luigi asked.

"Oh that! I was just going in to get changed into my normal clothes!" Toad said. "Still it's about time I got some credit for sorting out your silly fights!" He laughed.

"Not just that Toad. If it weren't for you we wouldn't have done a lot of things. You should remember that." Said Peach.

"I think I will. I think we've learnt a lot of important stuff today." Toad said, and smiled.

Epilogue 

Ludwig was working in his lab. He was really annoyed.

"That irritating Toad! If it hadn't have been for him my plan would have worked! In fact most of my plans would have worked! Still next time he won't stop me. He won't even want to try." Ludwig smiled at his newest creation. It looked like an empty robot that would contain a person who was about the same size a Toad. "It's amazing that anyone on Earth would actually have any useful ideas. I'll have to thank this Sega person, whoever he is, for coming up with these badnik things."

Would you like me to carry on with the Toad-badnik idea? Please review and let me know.


End file.
